WHAT IS IT?

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXII, Issue 4666, 18 July 1938, Page 6

WHAT IS IT?

LAND OF LOTUS-EATERS. When I landed upon the shore of Djerba, almost my first preoccupation was where the nearest meadow—or orchard should it be? of lotus grew, that I might taste its incomWhat I first set eyes on was two couples of ink-black negroes, each couple bearing between its shoulders a bamboo pole, whence a monstrous turtle swung. Who shall have turtle soup to-night? I wondered. What bearded Arab sheikh, what dapper French commissioner? For them their turtle soup, I said. For me the lotus, even its delights. I had hardly deposited my rucksack in the vaulted cavern of the hotel when I set forth to gather me lotus. Baedeker is clear enough about it: “From the lotus tree (Zizyphus Lotus: Arabic nebga, Fr. jujubier), which thrives here, Homer called it the island of the Lotophagi.” Where, then, to find a jujubier? Familiar trees were here from English orchards—apple and pear and cherry. It was not any of these that had stolen the wits .of Odysseus’s sailors away. Olives also were here, certain of those gnarled veterans having quite clearly been planted by Roman colonists. The ripening fruit of the datepalm was also springing bushily along thin golden stems at the crown of the tree. But, alas! no man would lead me to the jujube.—Louis Golding in Mien Only.